Former presidential candidate John Edwards made his first public comments since he ended his own campaign in January at a conference call with two of Senator Barack Obama’s key endorsers.

The two groups, progressive policy advocate MoveOn.org and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), scheduled the conference call to push for a withdrawal from Iraq to aid America’s faltering economy. While Edwards, seen above doing his best Al Gore impression, stopped short of endorsing a candidate for the Democratic nomination, supporters of the former Senator argue that his criticism of Senator Hillary Clinton’s vote to authorize force in Iraq and image as a Washington outsider make him more likely to endorse Obama, who has styled himself similarly. Instead Edwards focused his energies to attack Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, declaring him “[a continuation of] the incredibly failed policies of George Bush.”

Both campaigns have vigorously courted the endorsement of Edwards, whose populist message resonates with the key demographic of blue-collar voters.